Topics I've Started

PvE Engineers who feel their current role is overshadowed by other professions, players who enjoy playing a healing and/or tanking archetype, and players who enjoy playing an Engineer. This is an advanced build with a very high skill ceiling.

TL;DR AT BOTTOM

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION
(you can skip this part, but if you have any questions, return here)

I would like to start off by talking a little bit about my experiences and thought process in coming up with this build. First, I have a level 80 character of every profession with exotic or better gear except for a thief. I want each of my characters to have a specific role that they can excel in. For example, in my opinion, Warriors are the best at sustained DPS, Guardians are the “anchor” of a party, and Mesmers have the most utility. It is not a surprise that at the highest level of PvE, parties are saturated with only these, so called, tier 1 professions. This is unfortunate because Engineer is my favourite profession, but I end up playing one of the tier 1 professions because it is more accepted in the Guild Wars 2 community. Throughout my Engineer playtime, I have spent a lot of time and gold exploring different builds. I believe, now, I have come up with a role that the Engineer can excel in and be a valuable addition to a party even at the highest levels of PvE. This role revolves around Healing Power and Condition Damage. I am aware that these two attributes are very controversial in the community, but I hope to convince you otherwise with my Tanky Healy Condi Engi PvE build.

Without a doubt, Engineers cannot match the upfront and sustained damage of a Warrior. However, they do have access to a lot of conditions. In fact, Engineers have access to every condition in the game with the exception of fear. The great thing about damage inflicted by conditions is it only depends on 2 attributes: Condition Damage and Condition Duration. On the other hand, upfront damage depends on 3 attributes: Power, Precision, and Critical Damage. In addition, Condition Damage can be derived from Toughness with the use of 6 Superior Runes of the Undead and Master Tuning Crystals. Speaking of consumables, Rare Veggie Pizza gives a whopping 40% Condition Duration, which is one of the few sources of Condition Duration in addition to trait line, certain traits, certain runes, and Giver’s weapons. With this in mind, a character focusing on damage inflicted by conditions should invest in Condition Damage and Toughness gear. These two attributes are found in Rabid’s and Apothecary’s gear. The Precision from Rabid’s gear can be useful for proc’ing additional conditions from a Superior Sigil of Earth or certain traits, for example. However, Healing Power from Apothecary’s gear can be very beneficial with the right profession (I’ll give you a hint: he has a bomb kit).

A support Engineer with Elixir Gun and Elixir-Infused Bombs is not new. However, I have seen many Engineers use Cleric’s gear, probably because it is more accessible and well known. Now with the Living Story taking place in Southsun Cove, and the updates that have come with it, Karka Shells and Passion Flowers are more widely available, and the new ascended backpiece has Apothecary’s attributes too. Apothecary’s gear is now more accessible than ever and what better time to share this build than now. The benefit of Apothecary’s gear over Cleric’s for an Engineer is it takes advantage of the numerous conditions that can be applied from Pistol, Elixir Gun, and Bomb Kit. Also, Power is somewhat of a wasted attribute if not accompanied with high Precision and Critical Damage with regards to Cleric’s gear.

I have tested this build for the entire month of April running various dungeons and fractals and it performs very well. I feel like a Guardian anchor, but I can do a lot more like stealthing the party through certain parts. It is hard to judge how much damage you are producing, but I can kill trash mobs just as quickly as a Guardian anchor. If you would like to see how this build performs, you can send an in-game mail to Volcanis and I can run this build with a party of your choosing. I do not claim to have mastered this build, but I can provide a decent demonstration.

Note: I will be replacing the Rabid’s backpiece and accessories with Apothecary’s once I have enough Passion Flowers and Guild Commendations.

I believe my gear, skill, and trait choices are obvious, but if not, I’ll add a section here about that. The reason why I go 30 into Explosives is because if I have to attack from range for a particular encounter, I can swap Forceful Explosives for Grenadier and replace Bomb Kit with Grenades.

I will not go through an explanation on how to use this build because it is best to learn how to use it yourself. I will, however, go through some highlights of the build to get you excited about it.

TANKY

With over 3000 Armor and 15000 Health, this build will act like an anchor to hold agro for the party. In addition, Automated Medical Response will give you a second life as it recharges Healing Turret or Cleansing Burst when you dip below 25% Health. Another way to take advantage of Automated Medical Response is to use Healing Turret for your party and if you get in trouble, Healing Turret will recharge for you when you need it.

HEALY

One thing to note about the party healing potential is the party has to be quite close to the Engineer to maximize its potential. This is not much of a problem because many experienced speed runs of dungeons involve stacking of some sort.

Highlights of the party healing potential of this build (1427 Healing Power)

Healing Turret: constant party regeneration (323 per tick)

Cleansing Burst: 2646 party heal, 3 second water field, and constant party regeneration (323 per tick)

Regenerating Mist: 1 second water field and 6 seconds of party regeneration

Super Elixir: 1335 party heal and 10 seconds of healing (364 per tick)

Healing Mist: 10 seconds of party regeneration (323 per tick)

Elixir-Infused Bombs: healing bombs (303 per bomb)

4 reliable blast finishers: area healing (1685 per blast)

Note: Acid Bomb is currently queued, which will be the 4th area healing

Here is my burst party healing rotation to achieve the above screenshot:

This rotation heals the party for 10355 over 3 seconds and can be performed every 24 seconds.

Using Healing Turret, Super Elixir, and any bomb in the Bomb Kit will heal for 1000 every second for 10 seconds (+1335 from Super Elixir impact heal) for a total of 11335 party healing with 10 seconds of downtime between rotations. For the sake of comparison, you only heal the party for 5800 with no Healing Power.

CONDI

Highlights of the damage inflicted by conditions with this build (1364 Condition Damage with 3 stacks of might + 70% Condition Duration):

One thing to note about characters that focus on damage inflicted by conditions is they fare poorly against structures. However, Bomb has a very high damage coefficient. I averaged 783 damage per second with Bomb against a Practice Dummy in LA with 1468 Power, which is respectable.

One thing to note when using Tool Belt skills is even when they are on cooldown, you can change the parent utility skill to another utility. For example, I can use Toss Elixir U and then swap Elixir U to Elixir R and have access to Elixir R and Toss Elixir R instantly.

CONTROL

Highlights of control effects with this build

Knockback: Magnetic Inversion

Stun: Static Shield

Daze: Throw Shield

Launch: Big Ol’ Bomb

Potentially remove 5 stacks of defiance (Throw Shield can daze twice)

Crippled: Elixir F and Glue Bomb

Immobilized: Glue Bomb

Magnet: pulls a target without getting into combat (swap Tool Kit to another utility after a success pull)

CONCLUSION

The best way to summarize this build is a Guardian “anchor” build, but with a condition damage twist. Where the Guardian excels in projectile reflection and boons, the Engineer excels in combo fields and armor ignoring damage. However, I do not believe this build can replace a Guardian anchor in a high level party due to reflects being so useful. This is simply an alternative to a Guardian anchor with more healing, support, and control (and personally, a lot more fun).

One way to look at this build is it can accompany a Guardian anchor. I personally do not prefer running 2 Guardians because aegis does not stack in intensity. A party with 2/3 Warriors, 1 Guardian, 1 Engineer, and 1/0 Mesmer seems like a good party composition to me. Even a party with 3 Warriors, 1 Engineer, and 1 Mesmer does not look too bad either.

My hopes with publicizing this build is when you see an Engineer in a party, you can ask them if they are running a Tanky Healy Condi Engi build (or Vol’s Build), and if they are, you can plan your party around a decent anchor. Also, if you enjoy playing an Engineer (like me), here is a build that can play its role very well. In addition, if you find you are getting bored with playing a Guardian anchor, here is something new you can play around with that has the same feel, but with a dash of fun. Last, I hope to convert some players into playing an Engineer because they are a blast.

FUTURE WORK

I would like to try this build with Knight’s Armor with Ruby Orbs, Berserker’s Trinkets, Berserker’s Weapons with Sigils of Accuracy and Battle, Omnomberry Ghost, and a Potent Potion:

Black Legion Mercenary Company [BLMC] is a semi-hardcore PvX guild. Our definition of semi-hardcore is we understand members have lives outside of Guild Wars 2, but when we game, we game hard! We have a relaxed atmosphere with lots of laughter and poking fun at each other.

We are on the Jade Quarry server and our peak hours are between 6:00 – 11:00 PM EST. We have almost every upgrade for our guild as well as a Commander for WvW. We also have a 100 slot Teamspeak 3 server and an enjin website with a forum and event calendar.

We have a number of organized events such as dungeon runs, WvW, PvP, mat farming, and fun events with prizes. We also have bimonthly guild meetings to welcome new members and discuss how the guild is running.

We are looking for people who love Guild Wars 2, active during our peak hours, and are willing to log in Teamspeak regularly. You don’t need to be level 80 to join our guild. We are a beginner friendly guild that enjoys helping others with general PvE, dungeons, and farming to earn gold.

I'm looking for a blog post / interview of an ArenaNet writer(?) who was talking about the process in which she was naming an Ash Legion Charr Thief using Roman names and words. I want my Charr Gaurdian to have a romanized name, but I'm unsure of the naming convention and would like to use that blog post / interview as a reference.

Also, if anyone has more information on Charr naming convention using Roman names, that would help as well. Thanks.

Charr have fur patterns, Norn have tattoos, Asura have body markings, and Slyvari have the new bio-luminescence glow during night, but Humans don't have any equivalent to these extra body features; they only have height and physique.

Would you guys like a human equivalent to these body features? I couldn't think of a gender equal idea, so my best idea was to split it up for male and female: scars for men and beauty spots for women. Scars could be on the body (an X on a pectoral) or on the face (a vertical scar along an eye) and beauty spots could be a distinguished mole or freckles.

What do you guys think? Can you think of a better idea? Or would you like humans not to have this equivalent body feature?